The present invention concerns an automatic device for dispensing and applying adhesive tape onto surfaces to be joined, using ordinary adhesive tape of the kind used in offices, schools, workshops, businesses and DIY, etc.
Desk-top dispensers of adhesive tape in rolls are well known, featuring a heavy base for stability, comprising a roll-holder casing and a fixed blade for cutting the tape to the required length.
Similarly, a number of light and portable, non stabilized dispensers are known, these too comprising a roll-holder casing and a fixed cutting blade.
In addition, special adhesive tape dispensers are also known for packaging applications comprising a roll-holder casing, a handle and a fixed cutting blade.
The dispensers with a heavy base have a number of inherent problems: they force the user to move position in order to remove the tape, or alternatively to move the heavy device itself; theft are not stable on particularly smooth surfaces and thus can slide towards the user, slip and fall, or otherwise force the user to hold the device with one hand.
The portable dispensers are easier to handle, yet they do not allow, or at least they make it difficult for the user to cut longer pieces of adhesive tape and they force the user to use both hands for the operation.
Both kind of dispensers described above also have a number of defects in common: they force the user to handle the cut tape with its fingers, with the risk of dirtying it, getting it coiled up or sticking to itself or sticking it to other paper surfaces by mistake, thus ruining the tape they force the user to use both hands to apply longer pieces of tape, with the risk, due to static electricity, of attracting the sheets of paper to be joined and thus creating an imperfect joint; they don""t allow the cutting of very short pieces of tape; they force the user to add more tape if the first piece is cut too short, or vice-versa to cut the tape a second time if the piece is too long, or to calculate the exact length of the tape to be cut.
The dispensers of adhesive tape for sealing boxes and for packaging in general, finally, are not suitable for more precise office applications: they do not allow to precisely define the starting point for the application of the tape, as the latter hangs from the dispenser; they force the user to make wide, strong and firm movements with arm and wrist to cut the tape, the length of which can in any case not be determined with precision.
It is the aim of the present invention to eliminate above mentioned inconveniences.
One particular aim of the present invention consists in allowing the direct application, using just one hand, of the adhesive tape onto the surfaces to be joined, starting from a precise point and ending at a second point in correspondence to which the tape is automatically cut without having to remove the dispenser from the surface to which the tape is being applied.
A further aim of the present invention is the realization of a device which can be loaded with commonly available rolls of adhesive tape.
The aims set forth are reached by means of automatic device for dispensing and applying adhesive tape in rolls according to the present invention, comprising a casing which holds a roll of adhesive tape, and a cutting blade facing the tail of the unwound tape, characterized in that the blade is connected to mobile application means, controlled by the user, for the direct application under pressure of the adhesive tape onto the surfaces to be joined, and which cooperate, in the application and cutting phase of the tape, with said blade, mobile on the casing due to a kinematic connection of the latter to said mobile application means.
The advantages offered by the present invention mainly consist in that: the tape does not need to be handled; the tape does not need to be cut to a length longer than the one required; the application of the tape is highly precise; there is no need to use both hands to apply the tape; the device is easy-to-handle, ergonomic, practical and convenient, both in its use and its convenience.
The automatic device for dispensing and applying adhesive tape in rolls according to the present invention will be described more in detail hereinbelow relating to the enclosed drawings in which one embodiment is shown.